The top-ranked Gators will be joined by No. 12 Arkansas, No. 13 Boise State, No. 19 Denver, No. 20 Arizona and No. 27 BYU for the NCAA North Central Region Championships in Denver's Magness Arena at 8 p.m. (ET).
Florida is seeking its 12th regional title overall while looking to extend its school-record streak of consecutive regional crowns to seven under head coach Rhonda Faehn.
This is the third straight year the Gators have been placed in the North Central Regional, one of six regionals nationwide. The top two teams from each regional will advance to the 30th Annual NCAA Championships, which will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, April 15-17.
“We're very excited. We've been working hard for the past two weeks,” said sophomore All-America Ashanee Dickerson. “Ever since SECs, we've been working on our stuck landings and our performance as a whole. We just want to go out there and do our best, and hopefully the outcome will be good.”
Order of events was determined by draw, with UF starting out on the floor exercise. This marks the third straight year the Gators will start the regional meet on floor, and Faehn said she is looking for her team to come out strong.
“Our focus is to go aggressively on floor and go for everything,” Faehn said. “I told them if they make mistakes, I want them to have happened because you were being aggressive and not because you were holding back. We want to do that, and then carry that momentum on to the rest of the competition.”
This will be the first NCAA regional for talented freshmen Mackenzie Caquatto and Alaina Johnson, the latter of whom was named the SEC Freshman of the Year.
“It's a really exciting process,” Caquatto said. “SECs were a great experience because they really kind of put it all in perspective with all the different teams and the crowd. I feel like I know what to expect the rest of the postseason, and the team is really excited. We're going in strong.”
Florida has advanced to the NCAA Championships 28 times in the meet's 29-year history, with the lone exception coming in 2000. In addition to their current run of six consecutive regional crowns, the Gators have recorded five straight, top-five NCAA Championship finishes under Faehn, who is in her ninth season at UF.
“The team has been training really hard and we've had great practices,” said Faehn. “They are very focused. They're ready and they're really excited.”
In related news, regional and championship sites for the 2012 and 2013 NCAA Championships were announced earlier this week.
UF was selected as a regional host in 2013.
